Dingwall Owners Club

[NeonVomit]

Love the natural!!! Gorgeous.

All my dingwalls balance perfect without strap at around 40 degrees… even my big 6. Maybe your balance is due to the light body wood.

i am a fan of levis suede bass straps.

That's definitely possible, I should upgrade to a decent strap and I think that will make all the difference. I mean as it is now it's fine! This is a minor thing. Overall I'm very pleased with everything to do with my bass.

And yeah the natural finish is spectacular - I never knew a piece of ash could look that amazing!

 

[wavemaker]

Given that a Roc is a giant mythological bird, it’s fair to call this a nice little flock.

Hat tip to EMoneySC2 it was a pleasure doing business with you.

View attachment 4886491

Oh, we're posting our birds?

 

[gearhound22]

Oh, we're posting our birds?

beautiful! I have to ask though... do you prefer the roc or the bird?

I love that seafoam green!

 

[wavemaker]

beautiful! I have to ask though... do you prefer the roc or the bird?

I love that seafoam green!

Thank you. I do love the color, too, from the first day I saw it - which was about eight months before I had the chance to acquire it. It’s actually surf green matte, though. A little warmer than seafoam.

On paper, I prefer the original shape. To me, the Roc just seems a little more "metal" than the Bird’s "rock" to my eyes. I love how this is, to me, perfectly offset by the color of the Roc.

They’re both beautiful and very dear to my heart. I don’t prefer either bridge (after I upgraded the Bird‘s saddles a couple of months ago). I really like the clean look of the unmarked fingerboard on the Roc.

The Roc is actually a little weightier, but I only feel the difference when picking them up. On a strap, they balance ideally and their weight disappears.

Thy both sound killer. I usually use the MM-position with the tone about halfway closed. In the last weeks, I‘ve also come to appreciate the all-on position (tone full open, then) and its heft.

 

[groovaholic]

Just added a loading capacitor to the neck pickup on my Z2 (converted into a Z3).

The original 2 pickups were Bartolinis and the added neck pickup is a Dingwall P-Tone, and they never worked together all that well - the Bartolinis have a warm, punchy low-midrange voice while the Dingwall pickup is bright, raw, and hi-fi sounding.

Yesterday I found a thread about using a cap to tame the brightness of a pickup - and along with reducing highs, it also reduces the pickup's resonant frequency. It sounded promising, so I tried a couple different values on the P-Tone - with great success.

Simple soldering and a $.20 part (that I already had) made my #1 bass much better.

Earlier in that thread, someone had suggested to demo different caps with alligator clips, and that was incredibly helpful; 4n7 was too dark, 3n9 was better but still muffled, but 2n2 sounded great and made the P-Tone voice match the Bartolini pickups almost perfectly, but still maintain its unique character.

It occurs to me that the screw-terminals on the Dingwall pickup switch would make this really simple to try out; just loosen the + and - terminal for the pickup you want to darken, insert the cap alongside the pickup leads, and re-tighten.

Dead-simple, fully reversible, and you could try out DOZENS of caps for less than $10.
It's certainly an affordable alternative to swapping pickups...

 

[shade_1313]

Oh, we're posting our birds?

Pretty birdies!

 

[NKBassman]

Given that a Roc is a giant mythological bird, it’s fair to call this a nice little flock.

Hat tip to EMoneySC2 it was a pleasure doing business with you.

View attachment 4886491

Just curious, you don't find this a tad redundant? Are they all in different tunings?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for owning multiple basses, but for me I need each one to do something different.

 

[shade_1313]

On paper, I prefer the original shape. To me, the Roc just seems a little more "metal" than the Bird’s "rock" to my eyes. I love how this is, to me, perfectly offset by the color of the Roc.

I love the look of the D-Bird. Although I do also love the D-Roc shape, the Bird is just that little bit extra.

But for playability, upper fret access on the Bird is not good, while it’s immensely better on the Roc.

 

[shade_1313]

Just curious, you don't find this a tad redundant? Are they all in different tunings?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for owning multiple basses, but for me I need each one to do something different.

There are several factors here. First, and most superficially, I like them all, aesthetically. I love the shapes, I’m a sucker for basses in the GBV end of the spectrum, and D-Birds/Rocs are extremely well balanced on the strap. Beyond that, even basses that are the same, on paper, can feel and sound differently, and I can prefer to play this bass versus that, when the mood takes me. Most substantively, see my comments earlier, where I’m thinking about changing the pickups on two of them, so one stays with FD3Ns, one gets Super Fatty IIs, and the third gets FDVs.

 

[NKBassman]

There are several factors here. First, and most superficially, I like them all, aesthetically. I love the shapes, I’m a sucker for basses in the GBV end of the spectrum, and D-Birds/Rocs are extremely well balanced on the strap. Beyond that, even basses that are the same, on paper, can feel and sound differently, and I can prefer to play this bass versus that, when the mood takes me. Most substantively, see my comments earlier, where I’m thinking about changing the pickups on two of them, so one stays with FD3Ns, one gets Super Fatty IIs, and the third gets FDVs.

Cool. So you do notice a difference in feel and sound between them?
Honestly the D-Bird/Roc thing is just not for me aesthetically.

 

[El Spearo]

Is there a tonal difference between Nickel and stainless steel Payson strings?

 

[Derek Williams]

Is there a tonal difference between Nickel and stainless steel Payson strings?

 

[wavemaker]

Just curious, you don't find this a tad redundant? Are they all in different tunings?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for owning multiple basses, but for me I need each one to do something different.

You didn’t quote me, but I‘d still like to offer a counterpoint: I’m playing in an originals band of a fairly broad genre (post-rock), so I have a lot of room to decide for myself whatever sound fits our tunes, without needing to deliver anything "expected". I fully imagine this to be very different when playing covers or even in a genre associated with certain gear.
Because my situation is as it is, though, I have always enjoyed (and still do) having identical or at least very similar pairs of basses at my disposal: I might just happen upon a surf green kind of day and it’s nice to have the option.
In the same vein, I also have more than one pair of jeans in the same cut.

I love the look of the D-Bird. Although I do also love the D-Roc shape, the Bird is just that little bit extra.

But for playability, upper fret access on the Bird is not good, while it’s immensely better on the Roc.

The better upper fret access of the D-Roc is about as mythical to me as the bird which gave its name to the bass: Because of the strap pin location, anything above the 15th fret or roundabouts is unreachable anyways, so that cutaway looks a lot like marketing to me.
IMO, upper frets on those basses are for tapping or sitting down. They’re just not very sitting down-kind of basses, to me.

 

[shade_1313]

The better upper fret access of the D-Roc is about as mythical to me as the bird which gave its name to the bass: Because of the strap pin location, anything above the 15th fret or roundabouts is unreachable anyways, so that cutaway looks a lot like marketing to me.
IMO, upper frets on those basses are for tapping or sitting down. They’re just not very sitting down-kind of basses, to me.

I find the upper frets on the D-Roc quite useable, although I knew that there was a specific thing I have to do, which I figured out and is just unconscious now, to comfortably get on them. You know how you do some things automatically, and you have to actually pay attention to it if you want to describe it? Yeah, so I just went and sat down with my D-Roc and one of my Birds. My mind had wanted to say something about moving my thumb, and so I thought “maybe I move it past the strap pin?” On actually sitting and picking a line (the intro to For Whom the Bell Tolls, FTR) that needs those upper frets, it turned out to be as simple as “keep the thumb on the center of the neck” which I know I ought to do anyway but which I fight with.

And I get this:

Interestingly enough, I haven’t even tried those upper frets with a D-Bird before, because I assumed it was not going to happen.

To my surprise:

That said, my hand and wrist are clearly significantly rotated, compared to normal fretting hand posture, so it’s not the most comfortable, but I am pleasantly surprised to see that it is doable.

Everyone’s mileage may vary, there are people with a multitude of physical structural quirks and differences in their hands and arms, not to mention the height a player hangs their bass can radically alter the situation , but for me, the D-Roc’s upper frets are totally useable, and I’m delighted to find that I can play them on the D-Birds, too, albeit with a bit more difficulty.

 

[gearhound22]

Thank you. I do love the color, too, from the first day I saw it - which was about eight months before I had the chance to acquire it. It’s actually surf green matte, though. A little warmer than seafoam.

On paper, I prefer the original shape. To me, the Roc just seems a little more "metal" than the Bird’s "rock" to my eyes. I love how this is, to me, perfectly offset by the color of the Roc.

They’re both beautiful and very dear to my heart. I don’t prefer either bridge (after I upgraded the Bird‘s saddles a couple of months ago). I really like the clean look of the unmarked fingerboard on the Roc.

The Roc is actually a little weightier, but I only feel the difference when picking them up. On a strap, they balance ideally and their weight disappears.

Thy both sound killer. I usually use the MM-position with the tone about halfway closed. In the last weeks, I‘ve also come to appreciate the all-on position (tone full open, then) and its heft.

Awesome!!! I’ve got a similar roc finish but blue so looks a lot like yours!

 

[Thumper]

Regarding similar basses, that's the point. I have a ThunderJ I leave at practice, and a similar ThunderP I leave at home. I have a fanned fret Droc I leave at practice, and my SJ5XXX is at home. The lightest stay at practice (8 lbs 5 ozs and 7 lbs 9 ozs) which is 3 hours without a break. The heavier stay at home (8 lbs 7 ozs, 9 lbs 1 oz). I find if I don't play the fanned fret basses at least once a week, I can fumble on them a bit, so I want each at both locations, so I only have to transport basses to gigs.

Clearly, the FSOs and the Dingwalls bring something tonally different to the table.

 

[shade_1313]

Clearly, the FSOs and the Dingwalls bring something tonally different to the table.

But what about a Dingwall FSO (the Super P and Super J)?


Man, I really want an import Super P.

 

[Thumper]

Well, how about my SJ5XXX? I do want an import Super 4.

So I have/use 2 FSOs with Gibson electronics, a Gibson shaped object with Dingwall electronics, and a FSO with Dingwall electronics. What a paradox

 

[JDLowEnd]

Guess I’ll join the club and sub to this thread here. Need to do a deep dive into where people are getting their pickguards from…..

 

[shade_1313]

Well, how about my SJ5XXX? I do want an import Super 4.

So I have/use 2 FSOs with Gibson electronics, a Gibson shaped object with Dingwall electronics, and a FSO with Dingwall electronics. What a paradox

I have an Ibanez shaped object with Dingwall electronics. Well, I mean, it IS an Ibanez with Nordstrand’s Dingstrand Nordwall pickups, a DGTC, and a 2x switch in it. Someday, if there’s no insurmountable polarity issues, I’m going to get another BTB (probably a six string) and install three Dingstrand Nordwalls, a 3x, and DGTC, and then I get to have fun comparing tones.